ANCC and Sigma Theta Tau Announce Winner of the 2025 Evidence-Based Practice Implementation Grant
The winning project will receive funds for the evaluation and implementation of a nurse screening tool for infant safe sleep in the inpatient setting
ATLANTA –– October 7, 2025 –– The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) are excited to announce the 2025 recipient of the Sigma/ANCC Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Implementation Grant: an interprofessional team led by Michele DeGrazia, PhD, RN, NNP-BC, FAAN, director of nursing research for the neonatal intensive care unit at Boston Children’s Hospital, and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
The award-winning project, titled “Evaluation and Implementation of a Nurse Screening Tool for Infant Safe Sleep in the Inpatient Setting,” aims to increase infant safe sleep adherence in an inpatient hospital setting through multidisciplinary education and implementation of the SAFE-T Tool Version 2 (V2). tool. DeGrazia is joined by an interprofessional team, including:
- Co-Principal Investigator: Jennifer Gingrasfield, MSN, RN, PNP-BC, Boston Children's Hospital
- Project Coordinator: Alexandra Cole, MPH, program coordinator, Cardiovascular, Critical Care, and Perioperative Patient Services, Boston Children’s Hospital
- Research Assistant: Hangying She, PhD, RN, clinical research assistant, Cardiovascular, Critical Care, and Perioperative Patient Services, Boston Children’s Hospital
- Biostatistician: Laura Berbert, MS, biostatistician, Biostatistics and Research Design Center, Boston Children’s Hospital
This interprofessional team brings diversity of experience in nursing leadership, research, and cardiovascular care, ensuring an expert, dedicated approach to safe sleep adherence among hospitalized infants.
This project will collect data on infant sleep environments. Nurses and multidisciplinary team members will lead education sessions on safe sleep practices and use of the SAFE-T Tool V2, and data will be collected in a sample of infants’ sleep environments. After research is completed, a safe sleep screening tool will be scaled for use in pediatric inpatient settings across the nation. The tool will also support the American Academy of Pediatrics’ safe sleep practices by modeling them for caregivers during hospitalization.
The winning team was honored at the 2025 American Nurses Enterprise (ANE) Research Symposium on October 7, 2025, in Atlanta. This event is hosted by the ANE Research Advisory Council and the ANE Institute for Nursing Research & Quality Management.
For more information about the Sigma/ANCC Evidence-Based Practice Implementation Grant, please visit the Sigma Research Grant Program. To learn more about the Research Symposium, visit American Nurses Enterprise Research Symposium.
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